Wild Firebrand

When your dad was in the military and I was blessed enough to spend time with you three kids (who were all under the age of 3!), we had an abundance of lovely time together, but NO MONEY!! We were broke as hell…Dad was an E-3/E-4 and making $500 a paycheck — on the first and fifteenth. Luckily, we lived on Patrick AFB so our housing and utilities AND MEDICAL were covered, but for everything else, we were….Living on Love!!!

Anyway, we would be invited out to people’s house parties and the expectation was that we would bring a dish. But if it wasn’t stuff we could get on WIC, then we couldn’t afford to bring anything…..UNTIL…..I found this recipe from a cookbook your MeMe or my Mammaw handed down. So, it was either a Bechtel Wives plastic bound collection of recipes or something from the Methodist Church in Nacogdoches, but wherever it was I found it, it was my ‘signature dish’ for YEARS.

The four ingredients cost less than $5 — TOTAL!! Even less if you buy them from the commissary during a tent sale (IYKYK)!!! So, my loved ones, if you get invited somewhere, I hope you always have $5 to spare so you can choose to be social (or not — you do you, boo!)!!

The four ingredients are: Canned Crushed Pineapple, Can of Cherries, Yellow (or White) Cake mix, and Butter.

You’ll also need a casserole dish. If you want to use a disposable one so you’re not chasing your dishes down, then you may need to spend another dollar. But, if you gotta dish and friends who return them, get your 9×13 casserole dish — here’s my Princess House.

YOU DON’T EVEN NEED A CAN OPENER!!!

Now, DUMP the pineapple in the casserole. Highly technical term here — just open the can and dump it into the dish.

Next, open the cherries and do the same thing — I like to pour the cherry juice in first but only because it looks like modern art. Just dump the cherries in!

Now, open the cake mix — and JUST DUMP it over the pineapple cherry mix. Dry. Don’t do anything other than open the plastic bag inside the cardboard box and dump the powder over the mix in the dish. You can use a rubber spatula or plastic knife or spoon or whatever to spread it around like snow on a mountain.

Now. Take a stick (or more) of butter and cut it into squares. Enough to lay a chessboard across the dry cake mix — with space between the butter squares.

This is a stick and a third. but your pan may be longer/wider/whatever. And you can’t buy just one stick of butter anyway!

Then pop that thing in a 325 degree oven for 40 or 45 minutes (or whatever) when the top looks like a bubbly cobbler….golden and tasty! Take it out and take it to the party — tell someone else to bring the ice cream!!

(There are MANY VARIATIONS to this recipe — use apple pie filling or peaches with cherries or top it with pecans or walnuts or whatever — this is just a basic starting place to explore and give you options to PLAY with!!!)

Never say NO to going out if you want to GO. Never say YES to going out if you DON’T want to go. (Remember, NO is a protection spell!) Take care of you — mind, heart, body, and soul and ALWAYS know that YOU ARE LOVED and adored by your momma!!!

And enjoy your dump cake — your dad eats it for breakfast…